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When We First Met – More Spider-Man Firsts!

Every week we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic book lore. Not major stuff like “the first appearance of Superman,” but rather, “the first time someone said, ‘Avengers Assemble!'” or “the first appearance of Batman’s giant penny” or “the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth” or “the first time Spider-Man’s face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter.” Stuff like that. Here is an archive of all the When We First Met features so far! Check ’em out!

Today we take a look at a few notable Spider-Man firsts (here is the first edition of Spider-Man Firsts), including the first time Peter Parker sold photos to the Daily Bugle, the first time Spider-Man left a note for the police with tied-up crook(s), the first appearance of Spider-Man’s Spider-Signal and the first time Spidey was drawn without the webs underneath his arms.

Reader JoeMac suggested most of these!

First time Peter Parker sold photographs to the Daily Bugle…

Peter’s photography career began in Amazing Spider-Man #2…

I love the shot of Spidey with a camera in his hands…

Also this shot of the camera being knocked from his hands…

The traditional belt camera was described as about to be installed in #2….

But it is not ready yet for the re-match in #2….

First time Spider-Man left a note along with webbed up crooks…

Spidey first webbed up crooks in Amazing Spider-Man #3…

and later in the issue was the first time he left a note…

First time Spider-Man uses his Spider-Signal…

From the aforementioned #3, here is Spidey’s first use of his (rarely used) Spider-Signal…

What’s weird is that the creation of the device was not really delved into.

First time Spidey appeared without the webs under his arms.

Right from the get-go, the webbing under Spider-Man’s arms where there (here they are from the first appearance of Spider-Man’s costume in Amazing Fantasy #15)…

But over the years, the webs began to be drawn less and less. Mark Bagley must not have been a fan as he nearly never used them…

The first time that Ditko slipped up was in the first feature in Amazing Spider-Man #1…

And if you want to argue that the webs are somehow obscured in the above panel but still present, here, then, is a bit from #5…